Earls feared his career was ‘going to fizzle out'  

Keith Earls feared his career would fizzle out after his groin injury but he is set to make his 100th appearance in an Irish jersey on Saturday against old foes England. 

ONE HUNDRED AND COUNTING: Keith Earls looks set to make his 100th appearance for Ireland against England on Saturday. Pic:©INPHO/Dan Sheridan

There was a time, just four months ago, when Keith Earls feared he was in danger of fizzling out as a rugby player, his hopes of a dream ending to a glittering career dashed by one injury too many.

Yet time, and a high-grade tear to his groin, have proven great healers and this Saturday the 35-year-old winger will take to centre stage at Aviva Stadium once more, just the ninth Ireland player to reach 100 Test caps for his country.

The possibility of fourth World Cup campaign, in France next month, remains on the table and could be rubber stamped by a meaningful contribution to Ireland’s cause in this final home tune-up against England that would confirm head coach Andy Farrell’s enduring faith his abilities. Yet for now, Earls is more than happy to reach a milestone that has been 15 years in the making, going back to a try-scoring Test debut against Canada at Thomond Park in November 2008.

That groin tear playing for Munster against the Sharks in Durban on April 22 had been the third injury of a frustrating campaign and Earls was pessimistic at the prognosis awaiting him.

That he was back on the field just five weeks later, contributing to a first Munster trophy in 12 years, was way beyond his expectations, let alone having a shot at a century of Test caps in green.

“It was a high grade-three on the scan. It was like a 3C tear. And to be honest with you I’d given up coming home on the plane,” Earls said yesterday.

“I knew it was a bad one and I got the scan and we got the results, and I was like, ‘That’s it, I’m not going to be able to get enough games under my belt for Andy to pick me to get into the squad. I was just like, ‘I’m going to fizzle out here’.

“But in fairness after a couple of days we started to jog and I was like, ‘it’s not feeling too bad’. The physios were pushing it and testing it in the gym and they were like, ‘You wouldn’t know, you could get back for pre-season’.

"And then the lads picked up a couple of knocks (in the URC quarter-final) in Glasgow, Calvin (Nash) and Mala (Fekitoa), a couple of bangs, and we decided to push for it.

"I trained all week but I didn’t push off my left foot. I played on the wing, hoping to just get to the Leinster (semi-final) game and I think just adrenaline alone got me through that. And a nice little cameo in the final as well for nine or 10 minutes.” 

Earls could not help but agree it made the accelerated effort to return to fitness worthwhile, helping Munster end their trophy drought.

“Ah yeah, it was amazing. To miss out on that would have been devastating. Through all the hardship we went through the years, it was special. One of the nicest things anyone has ever done for me was Peter O’Mahony asking me to lift the trophy with him after it being so long since we’d lifted it. It was a great relief.” 

Going to a fourth World Cup with Ireland, a dozen years after his tournament debut in New Zealand, would be the icing on the cake on a career that still has an uncertain end. Earls has a central IRFU contract that expires in November and while an offer to return to a Munster contract awaits his return to Limerick after the tournament, he admitted he was still undecided about continuing into a 17th season with his home province having made his senior debut as a 19-year-old against Ospreys in Swansea in April 2007.

“To be honest with you, I’m back and forth on it. I’m guaranteed to be here until November, I’m contracted until then with the IRFU. We’ll see… I don’t know.” 

Earls’s courage to write and talk in recent years about the mental health issues that threatened to derail more than just his rugby career has enabled him to make up for lost time and appreciate the more recent years of his life in the professional game. That Test debut in 2008, he agreed, feels like a lifetime ago.

“It’s so long ago now you forget a lot of stuff from back then.

“I’ve said it before, I’ve enjoyed my journey since my 50th cap, the whole way to now with Ireland. I wish I was a bit more relaxed when I was younger about it but if it (his 100th cap) happens I will enjoy this one.” 

What keeps Earls going and targeting a fourth World Cup campaign?

“I suppose it’s a love of the game. It’s a hard one to try and step away from, it’s hard, if you’re going to be in rugby and compete at the top it would be a tough one just to hang on in there.

“If I’m going to keep playing I want to play at the top and between Munster and Ireland, they’re two special groups that I really want to be a part of. And if I going to be a part of them I want to be at the highest standard I can.

“I have a relationship with both coaches, if they think I can’t do it they’ll let me know and if I think I can’t do it I’ll let them know as well. So I think it’s just the competitiveness in the group and the way Irish rugby and Munster Rugby have gone, it’s a hard thing to not want to keep doing.” Yet if this autumn was the final hurrah, it would make for perfect timing.

“Yeah, it would be,” Earls conceded, “it would be the ideal way to crown it.

“As I say, a couple of weeks beforehand I knew what it felt like to potentially go out in a bad way.”